Notes: Diggle station enjoyed a spectacular location, where the four tracks of the Huddersfield-Manchester line emerged from the southern portals of the Standedge Tunnels. It opened about a year after the line itself, and at that time there was only a single-track railway tunnel. The opening date of 1 July 1850 is given by Quick, based on an entry in the Times. Research by Wells (1996) from Huddersfield Chronicle has turned up a reference to an excursion on 26 August 1850 from Mossley to York which called at Diggle, and the same author notes the content of a personal letter from a Delph mill owner who instructed the recipient to meet him at the station on 16 October 1850. However, by the end of the year the station appeared in Bradshaw’s timetable.

Rather than being a single settlement, Diggle consists of several clusters of houses bearing the names of Diggle Lea, Harrop Green, Kiln Green and Weakey, as well as a number of individual cottages and farmsteads. These, in turn, are all within the extensive parish of Saddleworth, the name carried by the next station south from Diggle. The name Diggle is derived from a Saxon word ‘Degle’ , meaning ‘valley’.

Up trains: weekdaysFebruary 1863

Destination

Down trains: weekdays

Destination

7.33am

Manchester

8.05am

Leeds

9.10am

Manchester

9.35am

Leeds

12.00 noon

Manchester

1.33pm

Leeds

5.30pm

Manchester

2.48pm

Leeds

9.35pm

Manchester

4.40pm

Leeds

-

-

6.22pm Tue & Fri

Leeds

-

-

8.40pm

Leeds

-

-

10.11pm

Leeds

Up trains: Sunday

Destination

Down trains: Sunday

Destination

7.04am

Manchester

8.45am

Leeds

8.36am

Manchester

10.25am

Leeds

2.35pm

Stockport

7.00pm

Leeds

8.20pm

Manchester

9.40pm

Leeds

The station at first possessed only a single short platform immediately north of a level crossing over Sam Lane. At what stage it gained a second platform is not known. However, after only two decades the LNWR in January 1871 was severely critical of its facilities describing its ‘wretched accommodation’ and noting its low platforms. In that year, when the second single-track Standedge Tunnel was opened, both platforms were extended up to the tunnel portals and the company expressed its intention to install additional sidings and a second signal cabin. In the late 1880s the decision was announced to replace the existing Sam Lane level crossing at the station with a bridge over the tracks, a short distance north-east of the crossing, and the construction of another Standedge Tunnel. This new tunnel was to carry two tracks and would require the provision of a new four-platform station at Diggle. Carrying this exciting news the Mossley & Saddleworth Reporter on 17 September 1888 opined with ill-concealed glee: ‘verily, Diggle is becoming a place of great importance’. Indeed, since 1886 Diggle had been the junction where the Micklehurst Loop left the original Huddersfield-Manchester line through Greenfield, and the extensive Marsh Sidings had been laid out on the north-west side of the running lines. Although the points to enter or leave the Micklehurst Loop were about a quarter of a mile south-west of Diggle (at Diggle Junction) the Greenfield and Micklehurst lines ran parallel for another quarter of a mile before they parted company, the latter disappearing into Butterhouse Tunnel.

In the late 1880s, prior to the rebuilding of Diggle station, there were buildings on both platforms and a signal box at the south-west end of the up (south-east) platform. Staircases descended to each platform on the south-western side of the new Station Road bridge. Probably in anticipation of the 1890s rebuilding of the station a new booking hall building was constructed to be entered directly from the south-west side of the road bridge. The brick-built, hipped roof structure straddled a siding behind the south-eastern platform.

The contract for the rebuilding of Diggle station was let to contractors Messrs Holme & King in 1889. Four platform faces were to be constructed, two flanking and one island. The south-easterly platform extended further south-west than the others, but, unlike its neighbours, it did not reach the tunnel portals. The booking hall, entered from the road bridge, was already in place, as stated above. The Board of Trade report noted the new arrangement and was satisfied with the ‘good waiting rooms and conveniences for both sexes’. Each platform was given timber, hipped-roof structures which abutted the north side of Station Road bridge, and carried flat awnings with serrated valances. The island platform building’s awning extended not only towards the rails, but also on its northern side. These timber buildings were typical of LNWR architecture of the late nineteenth century which could be seen scattered across its sprawling network. Biddle (1973) ascribes their origin to the influence of the company’s long-standing chairman, Sir Richard Moon, noted for his ‘stern discipline, ruthless efficiency and, above all, economy’, and describes their characteristic horizontal boarding, deep sash windows and full-length flat awnings, and their ‘ungainly’ appearance. Certainly in the local landscape of blackened sandstone buildings, at Diggle the utilitarian timber structures looked out of place. The clutter of ‘permanent way’ huts and sheds that appeared over the years towards the northern end of the island platform did nothing to improve the station’s appearance, but they were necessary to store materials for use in maintaining the four lengthy tunnels and tracks within them. At the extreme north-eastern point of the island platform, between the 1871 and 1894 tunnel portals, was the iron water tank supported on a red-brick base – and it survives in 2015, although somewhat disfigured by graffiti. Because the tunnels were a level stretch on a hilly route, water troughs were laid towards the south-western end to enable steam locomotives to pick up water whilst passing through at speed. The tank supplied water to these troughs. They were no longer required when steam gave way to diesel traction.

The new quadruple-track arrangement at Diggle was to designate the 1849 ‘Nicholson’ tunnel as the ‘down fast’ line and the 1871 ‘Nelson’ tunnel as the ‘up fast’, while the 1894 double-track tunnel handled ‘down slow’ and ‘up slow’ traffic. Much of Diggle station’s business was to be handled at the two platforms serving the slow lines, as the optimistic prediction of its ‘great importance’ was misplaced. With few exceptions Diggle was served by trains which called at all of the neighbouring stations, and the opening of the Micklehurst Loop had negligible impact on Diggle’s train service, as few local stopping trains were to use the route and its four stations had closed between 1907 and 1917, but some trains via Micklehurst trains in the early days of the service started or terminated their journey at Diggle.

The Railway Clearing House Handbook of 1904 notes that Diggle’s goods facilities could handle livestock and that a 5-ton capacity crane was installed. The station also supervised a siding that served the premises of Hutchinson Hollingworth & Co.

Up trains: weekdaysApril 1910

Destination

Down trains: weekdays

Destination

7.21am

Manchester Exchange

5.43am

Leeds New

8.04am

Manchester Exchange

7.43am

Leeds New

8.35am

Stockport ¶

8.28am

Leeds New

10.15am

Manchester Exchange

9.39am

Huddersfield

11.35am

Stalybridge

10.25am

Huddersfield

12.52pm

Manchester Exchange

11.01am

Marsden ¶

1.56pm

Manchester Exchange

11.25am

Leeds New

2.45pm

Stalybridge ¶

12.43pm

Leeds New

3.14pm

Manchester Exchange

1.47pm

Leeds New

4.48pm

Stalybridge

2.37pm

Leeds New ¶

5.46pm

Stalybridge

4.00pm

Huddersfield

6.30pm

Stalybridge

5.04pm

Huddersfield

7.56pm

Manchester Exchange

6.04pm

Huddersfield

9.44pm

Manchester Exchange

6.45pm

Huddersfield

-

-

7.35pm

Leeds New

-

-

9.03pm

Leeds New

-

-

10.25pm

Leeds New

Up trains: Sunday

Destination

Down trains: Sunday

Destination

8.00am

Manchester Exchange

10.53am

Leeds New

1.35pm

Manchester Exchange

7.32pm

Leeds New

8.09pm

Manchester Exchange

10.02pm

Leeds New

¶ Via Uppermill (Micklehurst Loop) before or after leaving Diggle

In January 1923, at the ‘Grouping’, the LNWR was one of the companies to be absorbed by the new London, Midland & Scottish Railway. Under this administration little was to change at Diggle. The 1938 timetable below shows an increased frequency compared to the 1910 service, but trains call at irregular intervals. The LMS retained earlier LNWR station signage but the style of gas lamps was modernised by the LMS, the casements being replaced with the ‘Sugg’ design.

Up trains: weekdaysJuly 1938

Destination

Down trains: weekdays

Destination

5.58am Mon excepted

Stalybridge

6.09am

Leeds City §

6.42am

Manchester Exchange

7.05am

Leeds City

7.04am Sat excepted

Stalybridge

7.28pm

Huddersfield

7.04am Sat only

Manchester Exchange

8.16am

Leeds City

7.19am

Manchester Exchange

9.36am

Huddersfield

7.58am

Manchester Exchange

10.48am

Leeds City

8.29am

Stalybridge

11.37am Sat excepted

Huddersfield

8.58am

Manchester Exchange

11.37am Sat only

Leeds City §

9.34am

Blackpool Central

12.44pm

Leeds City

9.53am

Manchester Exchange

1.28pm Sat only

Huddersfield

10.55am

Manchester Exchange

1.37pm

Leeds City

12.08pm Sat only

Manchester Exchange

2.40pm

Leeds City §

12.10pm Sat excepted

Manchester Exchange

3.54pm

Huddersfield

12.20pm Sat only

Manchester Victoria

4.52pm

Huddersfield

12.33pm Sat only

Greenfield

6.15pm

Leeds City

12.57pm

Manchester Exchange

6.46pm

Leeds City §

1.50pm

Manchester Exchange

7.47pm

Leeds City

3.00pm

Manchester Exchange

9.04pm

Leeds City

5.03pm

Manchester Exchange

9.22pm

Leeds City

5.40pm

Manchester Exchange

10.06pm Sat only

Leeds City §

6.25pm

Stalybridge

10.55pm

Leeds City

7.39pm

Manchester Exchange

11.54pm Sat only

Marsden

9.37pm

Manchester Exchange

-

-

11.30pm Sat only

Oldham Clegg Street

-

-

Up trains: Sunday

Destination

Down trains: Sunday

Destination

8.12am

Manchester Exchange

8.37am

Leeds City

11.53am

Manchester Exchange

11.06am

Huddersfield

1.22pm

Manchester Exchange

5.46pm

Leeds City

6.27pm

Manchester Exchange

9.25pm

Leeds City

9.41pm

Manchester Exchange

-

-

§ via Heckmondwike (Spen)

From January 1948 Diggle was within the new British Railways’ London Midland Region (LMR), which in England & Wales closely corresponded to the extent of the LMS network. However in April 1950 there were many regional boundary adjustments, one of which handed the Leeds- Huddersfield-Manchester route to the North Eastern Region as far south-west as the portals of the Standedge Tunnels at Marsden. The June 1950 timetable was not greatly changed in frequency in comparison to that of 1938. It remained irregular with some noticeable gaps in the late morning and mid afternoon.

Up trains: weekdaysJune 1950

Destination

Down trains: weekdays

Destination

6.42am

Manchester Exchange

6.10am

Leeds City §

7.24am

Manchester Exchange

6.46am

Huddersfield

7.58am

Manchester Exchange

7.06am Sat excepted

Huddersfield

8.25am

Stockport & Leeds City

7.25am

Huddersfield

9.01am

Manchester Exchange

8.14am

Leeds City

10.48am

Manchester Victoria

10.58am

Leeds City

12.35pm Sat only

Manchester Victoria

11.37am Sat only

Huddersfield

12.58pm

Manchester Exchange

12.44pm Sat excepted

Leeds City

1.54pm Sat only

Manchester Exchange

12.56pm Sat only

Leeds City

2.26pm

Manchester Exchange

1.37pm

Leeds City

5.01pm Sat excepted

Stockport

3.59pm

Huddersfield

5.41pm

Manchester Exchange

4.52pm

Huddersfield

6.22pm

Stockport

5.18pm Sat excepted

Leeds City

7.16pm

Manchester Victoria

6.15pm

Leeds City

7.44pm

Manchester Exchange

6.28pm

Marsden

9.40pm

Liverpool Lime Street

6.54pm

Leeds City §

11.33pm Sat only

Oldham Clegg Street

7.52pm

Leeds City

-

-

9.35pm

Leeds City

-

-

10.10pm Sat only

Leeds City §

-

-

10.54pm

Leeds City

Up trains: Sunday

Destination

Down trains: Sunday

Destination

8.10am

Liverpool Lime Street

8.35am

Leeds City

11.41am

Manchester Exchange

11.27am

Leeds City

1.15pm

Manchester Exchange

5.54pm

Leeds City

6.00pm

Manchester Exchange

9.11pm

Bradford Exchange

9.34pm

Manchester Exchange

9.28pm

Leeds City

§ via Heckmondwike (Spen)

Diggle station closed on Sunday from 1956/57, whilst all of other local stations retained Sunday trains for several years more. Although this measure must have been taken on economic grounds, it is surprising in the light of Wells’ recollection that Diggle station was ‘an ideal place to set off from for a day’s walk in the surrounding hills or along the quiet lanes’, an activity particularly suited to Sundays. By 1958 the waiting room block on the ‘up fast’ (south-east) platform had been demolished. It was probably little used if trains generally called at the ‘up slow’ face of the island platform. On 1 February 1958 in a further regional boundary adjustment the Standedge Tunnels were transferred to the North Eastern Region, with that region’s Chief Civil Engineer responsible for their maintenance, although the LMR Chief Mechanical & Electrical Engineer remained responsible for the water troughs and tank at the south end of the tunnel. At some date after August 1958 the LMR installed vitreous enamel nameboards and totem signs at its ‘frontier’ Diggle station but left the gas lighting in place.

Diggle was one of the stations earmarked for closure in the ‘Beeching Report’ of March 1963. The proposals for the Huddersfield-Manchester route meant, in terms of passenger traffic, that all local services would cease and it would become just an inter-city line (though this term was not used at the time). Only Stalybridge would keep its station. On 4 November 1963 Diggle closed to goods traffic. The ‘Beeching Report’ did not list specific stations where goods traffic would cease to be handled, but there was a stated intention to modernise freight transport by rail which would spell the end of traditional small goods stations and ‘pick-up’ goods trains.

Whereas ‘Beeching’ closures to which objections had been received kicked in as early as January 1964, the process was much slower for the Huddersfield-Manchester route, and the decision was eventually taken to reprieve certain stations (including Marsden, Greenfield, Mossley and Ashton) but to close others, which included Diggle and Saddleworth. The Micklehurst Loop, lacking any intermediate passenger stations, apparently escaped the attention of Beeching’s advisors, but it was swiftly closed to passenger traffic on 7 September 1964. Closure of the Micklehurst Loop to goods traffic on 3 October 1966 (north of Hartshead Power Station) coincided with the closure of the two single-bore Standedge Tunnels. Although this was all part of route rationalisation - as traffic was declining, whereby the four tracks between Huddersfield and Stalybridge were reduced to just two - the closure of the two older railway tunnels enabled them to be used for research in connection with the Channel Tunnel project. In this process the horizontal ventilation shafts were sealed off and test trains were run through by the Channel Tunnel Co as part of an investigation into conditions in a possible ‘Chunnel’, as it was popularly known at the time. This project foundered in 1975, and it was not until 1986 that a revised scheme was approved by the United Kingdom and French governments resulting in the opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994. The single-bore tunnels are barricaded but are still used for maintenance purposes.

The closure of what had been the fast line tunnels made the corresponding platforms at Diggle station redundant. At an unknown date the waiting room block on the ‘down slow’ (north-west) platform was removed, so in the run up to closure passengers travelling to Marsden and points north had no shelter from the weather. Whilst British Rail -as British Railways had rebranded itself in 1965 - was keen to be perceived as forward-looking, sleek and innovative, in reality much of the infrastructure was jaded, neglected and shabby. Geoffrey Lewthwaite and John Alsop’s evocative photographs taken in July 1968 capture this run-down atmosphere perfectly at Diggle station three months before closure. By May 1968 closure was confirmed, but a respectable number of train calls were still made at the station. However the irregular intervals had always been a deterrent to potential passengers, and in this final timetable, except on Saturdays, no trains left towards Huddersfield between 08.17 and 16.42. On Monday 7 October 1968 Diggle station closed, the final trains having called two days earlier. On the same date several other stations on the Huddersfield-Manchester line closed: Longwood, Golcar, Slaithwaite, Saddleworth, Droylsden and Clayton Bridge. This was one of the closures which went unacknowledged in the BR(LM) passenger timetable book, but a brief reference appeared in an amendments booklet, assuring would-be passengers that ‘the area is suitably served by ‘buses’. Slaithwaite has subsequently reopened, but Park and Miles Platting were eventually closed in 1995, a mere 32 years after Beeching had sounded their death knell.

Up trains: weekdaysMay 1968

Destination

Down trains: weekdays

Destination

06.50 Sat excepted

Manchester Victoria

06.43

Leeds City

06.50 Sat only

Manchester Exchange

07.23

Leeds City

07.24

Manchester Victoria

08.17

Leeds City

07.49 Sat excepted

Manchester Exchange

11.42 Sat only

Huddersfield

08.10

Manchester Exchange

13.42 Sat only

Huddersfield

09.02

Manchester Exchange

15.42 Sat only

Huddersfield

09.55 (Starts here)

Manchester Victoria

16.42

Leeds City

12.46

Manchester Exchange

18.15

Leeds City

13.57 Sat only

Manchester Exchange

19.00

Huddersfield

16.53

Manchester Victoria

21.41

Hull ¶

17.40

Manchester Exchange

22.44 Sat only

Leeds City

18.10

Manchester Exchange

-

-

19.50

Manchester Victoria

-

-

21.21

Manchester Exchange

-

-

23.20 Sat only

Manchester Victoria

-

-

No Sunday service

No Sunday service

The old down slow and island platforms and station buildings at Diggle were demolished within six years of closure; the up fast platform survived until the 1980s. However today, even from a train speeding through the site, it is clear that there was once a station here from the general untidiness of the scene. The broad swath corresponding to the former island platform and fast lines has been invaded by shrubs, and the water tank remains in place. Where the booking hall building used to straddle a siding, a traditional-looking stone-built house now occupies the site, abutting the road bridge. The station cottages are still in place immediately south-east of the station site; they look entirely in keeping with other houses in the neighbourhood, being built of local stone. Further south-west of the station the formerly extensive Marsh Sidings have been removed leaving only a long loop on the down side between Diggle Junction signal cabin and Station Road bridge.

In 2012 a local councillor, Garth Harkness, presented a petition to Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) in support of reopening Diggle station and the two disused single-track Standedge Tunnels, as part of the ‘Northern Hub’ investment plan. TfGM replied that the possibility of reopening the station had been considered in 2001 and 2005 and on both occasions, set against capital and ongoing operational costs, the case for reopening was found to be poor. On re-examining the matter in 2012, TfGM concluded that Diggle should not be reopened, and made the point that 76% of passenger demand at Diggle would be abstracted from Greenfield station, and that a better option for improving accessibility in the Saddleworth area would to be to improve the attractiveness of Greenfield station (which – having survived Beeching! - is used by an estimated 327,000 passengers per year and is now the only national network station within the Borough of Oldham).

CLICK HERE FOR A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HUDDERSFIELD & MANCHESTER RAILWAY AND THE MICKLEHURST LOOPLINE

Looking east towards Diggle station circa 1910. Station Road is in the foreground and it re-appears at a lower level crossing the station by means of a bridge. The hipped-roof building at the far end of the bridge contains the booking hall and a siding passes below it. The station footbridge is adjacent to the road bridge, reached through the booking office and with flights of stairs down to the platforms. On the far left the portals of the two single-track Standedge Tunnels are visible. These are used by the up and down fast lines while the two slow lines use the newer double-track tunnel which is beyond the left edge of the picture
Photo from John Mann collection

1854 1: 10,560 OS map. Diggle station is seen at the south-western end of ‘Stand Edge Tunnel (Railway)’. This single-track tunnel opened in 1849 and was parallel to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal’s tunnel of 1811. The scale of the map does not permit detail of the station to be shown, but Wells (1996) states that it originally possessed only a single platform. The local landscape is at an interesting stage of industrialisation. Traditionally the families in the dispersed farms and hamlets pursued a ‘dual economy’ of farming and domestic weaving, but some mills are now scattered around the landscape, most of them spinning or weaving wool, and one manufacturing paper.

1892 1: 2,500 OS map. The second Standedge railway tunnel was opened in 1871, south-east of the 1849 tunnel. In that year the LNWR expressed the intention of making improvements to Diggle station, which is shown here in its altered layout, and only two years before the third tunnel opened and the station was rebuilt. Sam Lane approaches the station from the west, and until the late 1880s it crossed the railway on the level, where ‘Signal Box’ is printed. Following, and possibly because of, an accident on the crossing in 1878 the road was diverted to the north over a new bridge; this new section seen on the map to be was named Station Road. Stairways can be seen on the map on the south-west side of the bridge leading to the platforms. Buildings can be seen on both platforms. A siding passes behind the up (south-east) platform, and a parallel siding passes beneath the gantry-mounted booking hall building which is entered from the road bridge. Goods sidings spread out on both sides of the running lines. A turntable on one of the ‘up’ sidings gives access to four short sidings. The goods warehouse (not named, but adjacent to plot no.1798) is aligned diagonally to the running lines. A crane is shown in the ‘up’ sidings area. The terrace of station cottages is seen above ‘Box’ (of ‘Signal Box’). The Micklehurst Loop opened in 1886, and at the south-western end of the goods yard is ‘Diggle Junction’, with a new signal box, where the original and new routes divide.

1906 1: 2,500 OS map. The double-track Standedge railway tunnel was completed in 1894; it is the most north-westerly one. Going south-east, the next is the Huddersfield Narrow Canal Tunnel (1811), followed by the 1849 and 1871 single-track railway tunnels. Diggle station was rebuilt with platform faces on all four tracks and extending on both sides of Station Road bridge. The north-west platform was the ‘down slow’, whilst the central island platform dealt with ‘up slow and ‘down fast’ trains. The south-eastern platform was the ‘up fast’, and it stretched much further south-west than the others. On the other hand, the island and down slow platforms extended up to the tunnel portals, ending without ramps. New buildings were constructed on each platform, immediately north-east of the bridge, and the road-level booking hall building, seen on the 1892 map, was retained: it can be identified by ‘LB’ (= letter box). The station signal box has gone. Some reorganisation of sidings has been carried out close to the goods warehouse, and a weigh office (WM= weighing machine) is shown.

1932 1: 2,500 OS map, The principal change since the 1906 map is the expansion of the siding capacity on both sides of the running lines. In terms of passenger train services Diggle is no longer a junction since the local trains on the Micklehurst Loop were withdrawn in 1917, but goods and minerals and certain through passenger services continue to use the Loop.

1965 1: 2,500 OS map. Diggle station is seen here shortly before some profound changes. The building on the up fast (south-east) platform has been removed, but the year after the publication of this map would see the closure of the two fast lines and the single –track Standedge Tunnels through which they passed and the Micklehurst Loop would close to through traffic. Two years later Diggle station would close to passengers. Goods traffic ceased to be dealt with at Diggle in 1963, but there is still a generous provision of sidings seen on this map.

Looking south at Diggle circa 1910. In the background is the up fast platform, with a rake of LNWR coaches in the siding which passes underneath the booking hall (off the scene, to the left). Perhaps this is the rolling stock for a Diggle – Micklehurst – Stalybridge local train. The goods warehouse is on the right, with some wagons in the adjacent sidings. The foreground is of equal interest, with the lady attired in her long skirt, pinafore and shawl, perhaps carrying her groceries, and the bearded gentleman in his suitably rustic clothing, accompanied by a dog. The splendid hexagonal gas lantern and the humbler lamp to its right on the down slow platform will also be noted. Beyond the station the delightfully varied stone buildings in the hamlet of Kiln Green are overlooked by stone-walled upland pasture.
Photo from Jim Lake collection

Looking north towards Diggle station c1910. The station platforms are seen on the right of the picture, with the booking hall perched above on Station Road bridge. The station’s goods
warehouse is just left of centre.
Photo from John Mann collection

Looking north-east along the island platform c1930s towards the Standedge Tunnels. The LNWR nameboard is prominent. The footbridge adjoins the Station Road bridge, but a parapet separates them so that passengers must walk through the booking hall to reach the footbridge. The right side of the island is the down fast line platform with its single-track ‘Nicholson Tunnel’ portal beyond, to the right of which is the complementary ‘Nelson Tunnel’ for up fast trains. The later Standedge North Tunnel carries the slow lines. An engine is emerging from the North Tunnel on the up slow line.Photo from John Mann collection

Looking north-east from Station Road bridge at Diggle circa 1930s. The goods train is emerging from the single-track ‘Nelson’ Standedge Tunnel on the up fast line. The up fast platform’s LNWR running-in board is seen. The portal of the down fast line ‘Nicholson’ Standedge Tunnel is seen to the left.Photo from John Mann collection